Seattle: Mike McCarthy's post-game press conference

Here’s a portion of what Packers coach Mike McCarthy said in his post-game press conference after the Packers lost to the Seahawks:

“Congratulations to Seattle. I thought they played very well, really, in a nutshell. As far as coming in here and playing this style of football game … we started with running the football – and we’re not quite where we needed to be there. And definitely did not stop the run. So our fundamental inconsistencies throughout the game coincides with untimely penalties.

“Any time we were able to come back with momentum swings, we felt all week coming in here, playing in this environment, against an excellent football team - we had games of momentum swings. And we had to swing it back. And we were not able to do that tonight. So, hard loss, hard defeat.”

(Was there anything about Seattle’s offense that they threw at you that you weren’t expecting?)

“No, I’m not really… I’ve seen the video of the specifics. They ran the ball, they ran it well. It’s obviously a starting point of their offense. Marshawn Lynch had a huge night. … Tonight it really started with the run game.”

(Percy Harvin was effective?)

“Well, that’s similar to they way he was used in Minnesota. Obviously he’s a dynamic player. We knew that coming in. You know they’re going to use speed sweeps off the motion and getting him the ball on the perimeter. I think they accomplished what they wanted to accomplish. Running the football with Marshawn and getting the ball to Percy on the perimeter.”

(RT Bryan Bulaga?)

“I’m told that it was a knee sprain. As of right now, we do not fear a major injury. That’s kind of where it stands until we get back and get the scans in there, we’ll know better. Right now the trainer’s words were we do not fear a major injury.”

(Seattle’s physicality?)

“Physicality - I think sometimes we can swing it either way based on the conversations… They broke a lot of tackles. They broke a lot of tackles tonight. We broke some. Probably not enough. We’ll get that through the video. But I didn’t like the way we started the game. I didn’t like the substitution patterns. Burning the timeouts. Special teams and defense. You come up to this environment and you have to carry your preparation forward. You have to get in a rhythm and a flow, regardless of what unit you play on: offense, defense or special teams. We got off to a rough start. We battled back, we just couldn’t sustain it.”

(The fourth down and five call? What was the thinking behind it?)

“I thought that was an important drive in the game. … It’s just a time clock issue we kind of ran in to. I had conversations going on on the sideline. … I thought the clocks needed a re-set there. We kind of got up against it. In hindsight, I thought about calling a time out and re-thinking that situation. But we thought we had a good play. You go for it on fourth down, that’s the gamble you take."

(Eddie Lacy’s injury?)

"Concussion. I haven’t even talked Eddie yet. That’s the quote from the training room.”

(How did the game change when you lost Bulaga?)

“It changed a couple of things. We really had to kind of flip our plan, based on what they were doing. We got caught a couple of times on some uphill situations as far as the way the protection was set. … That’s what caught us on the safety. That’s football. It happens all the time.”

About Lori Nickel

Lori Nickel covers the Packers, writes other sports features and also writes a weekly health and fitness column and blog, Chin Up.